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Thrommelport
Thrommelport (archaically, Thromport) is a large independent city-state, in fact one of the world’s largest cities, situated on the western tip of Peiramia and commanding the Dragon’s Jaw strait that separates Taijuria from Rhydain. Its singular position means it can control the flow of all shipping and commerce between the Sarpic Seas and the Emerald Ocean, giving it unique strategic importance and greatly enriching its rulers and merchant class. This same enviable position has always made Thrommelport an object of avarice for various empires and kingdoms in the region, and at various points in the past, the city has been subjected to foreign suzerainty, forced into tributary status, compelled to allow free passage for ships of this or that empire, or outright conquered and occupied. On just as many occasions, however, it has succeeded in rebuffing such attempts by much larger empires, either by virtue of canny political maneuvering, its superbly trained fleet, its formidable fortifications, or all three. Thrommelport is currently a fully sovereign and independent city-state, with the lord of the city calling no king his master. Physically, Thrommelport is built on the slopes of the three steep, projecting promontories that form the tip of the Cape Kueron headland, running together with parallel ridges from their triple summits down to the shore of the strait. It is this triple promontory that gives the tip of the headland it’s distinct three-pointed shape, with a pair of deep coves or inlets sheltered between the three projecting spurs of lands where the promontories meet the water. These two coves, partially enclosed by manmade seawalls, form the natural harbor of Thrommelport. The city proper is characterized by the steep slopes it perches on, with rank upon rank of high houses and cramped courtyards stacked almost on top of each other up the sides of promontories, clinging to their rocky flanks and threaded through with claustrophobic lanes that switch back onto themselves countless times as they climb from the shoreline to the heights. In places the city is almost more vertical than horizontal, and instead of major boulevards, wayfarers will ascend set after set of broad but steep stairs linked by narrow, shelf-like public plazas terraced onto the slopes. Often the doors and windows of one house will open out onto the roof of the one below it, which serves as its front court. Alleys are apt to be tight, winding stairways, seeming to twist ever upwards, that may open out unexpectedly onto a bit of rooftop or the edge of a buttress with the cityscape dropping away below and a breathtaking view out over the straits beyond. Cargoes can scarcely be moved around by cart or wagon in such a city, so the lanes and stairs are constantly crowded with swarms of pack-mules and slave porters hauling heavy loads of every imaginable description on their backs. At the city’s highest points, the tops of these three parallel promontories, stand three monumental structures that dominate and define Thrommelport’s skyline. On the northernmost height is the XXXXXXXX Keep, a mighty fortress and the central or uppermost citadel of the city’s fortifications. On the middle height is the huge palace of the lord of the city. On the southern height stands the equally enormous Great Temple of the Khreianoa, the patron goddesses of Thrommelport; it is the largest temple to them in Urva and serves as a worldwide center of their cult. Legend has it that underground passages tunnel down through the rock and join the vaults of the temple with tidal caves and grottoes far below, at the foot of the promontory where it meets the sea, and that these secret caves are holy to the Khreinoa and are used by their priests for sacred rites.